Roadshow expert’s Chinese odyssey on BBC4

We love a bit of china (see our feature on blue and white in the June issue) so we’re very excited to hear about BBC Antiques Roadshow Lars Tharp’s new programme, airing next week. Following on from his last film, Treasures of Chinese Porcelain, which looked at pieces made for export to the west, Lars’s new show, China in Six Easy Pieces, considers the very different items made for the home market and Imperial court.

The programme follows Lars on a journey of more than a thousand miles along the Grand Canal from the southern city of Hangzhou to the Forbidden City in the north. Along the way, he takes a closer look at the life of Chinese emperors through the lens of the porcelain they collected, from a grey-glazed vase known as a Cong to a rare wall vase inscribed with a poem in praise of clay, and asks what they can tell us about China today.

Lars was lucky enough to be able to film the renowned Percival David collection of Chinese ceramics (never previously seen on TV) at the British Museum, so if the programme piques your interest as we’re sure it will, you know where to go to find out more.

China in Six Easy Pieces will be broadcast on 9th July at 9pm on BBC 4.

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